Once Byndom and his UT teammates boarded a bus bound for Stillwater, a satellite hook-up kept them updated on four more Smith TDs. Then, after the Longhorns had given up 576 yards and barely survived a 41-36 shootout with Oklahoma State, they boarded a charter plane, also equipped with live TV and enough Smith highlights to have the weaker-stomached defenders reaching for an air-sickness bag.

“We didn't need a scouting report,” UT coach Mack Brown said. “By the time we got home, the defense had seen enough.”

This Saturday at Royal-Memorial Stadium, the 11th-ranked Longhorns would like to avoid experiencing any in-person flashbacks. With a defense already reeling from repeated big plays and the creeping sensation that it might not be as good as it was hyped to be, UT now has to deal with Smith, the prolific, near-unblemished leader of the top passing attack in the country.

“It's time for us to grow up,” defensive coordinator Manny Diaz said. “We have no choice.”

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While the Longhorns (4-0, 1-0 Big 12) aren't running scared from the challenge of facing No. 8 West Virginia (4-0, 1-0), they're not publicly predicting domination, either. Instead, they spent Monday spelling out realistic expectations for a game that could approach the points-scoring madness of the Mountaineers' 70-63 victory over Baylor.

Brown also said he's not going to use ruining Smith's growing Heisman Trophy campaign as a motivational ploy, the way he did before Baylor's Robert Griffin III threw for 320 yards against UT in December.

“I told them to keep the Heisman away from Robert Griffin last year,” Brown said. “And they handed it to him at halftime of our game.”

Instead of shutting Smith down, UT is hoping to just make things difficult and keep the Mountaineers out of the end zone. That worked just well enough at OSU, where holding the Cowboys without a touchdown on three of five trips inside the red zone proved to be the difference in the game.

Even though UT has missed a plethora of tackles and looked bad at times this season, the players said their pride hasn't been affected.

“It's going to take a lot to bruise the egos on this defense,” cornerback Quandre Diggs said. “We've got a lot of confident guys.”

Still, Diaz and Brown said the staff is contemplating personnel changes. Safety Adrian Phillips is no longer listed as a sure starter and could lose the job to Mykkele Thompson or Josh Turner. Changes also might be made at linebacker, where Steve Edmond and Demarco Cobbs have underperformed.

Even so, Byndom said the defense hasn't lost the mentality of a unit projected to be one of the nation's best.

“I think it's still there,” Byndom said. “We still know the kind of defense we can play. We just have to do it.”

Injury update: Brown declined to speculate on the availability of linebacker Jordan Hicks (who missed the OSU game with a hip injury), tailback Malcolm Brown (who sprained his left ankle early in that game) or kicker Anthony Fera (who practiced for the first time Sunday after being sidelined six weeks with a groin injury). UT will announce the status of those players Friday.